SCIENTIFIC TAXIDERMY FUR MUSEUMS. 433 



hall in which their cases w"ere exhibited. In this particular the mam- 

 mal department is far better off. It being in the National Museum 



building proper, a comparatively more modern structure, it is both 

 well lighted and well ventilated. The casings are of the most recent 

 improved kinds, and set off their subjects very satisfactorily. An 

 object of great interest, and suspended from the roof, is the vertical 

 mid-section of a hollow papier mache whale, into which has been 

 placed a skeleton of the same species in situ. It renders a fine idea of 

 the position of the osseous framework of this huge marine mammal. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



In writing out the account of my observations and in giving my opin- 

 ions for this report on the present status of the art of taxidermy, and 

 what may be hoped for it in the future, I have been very largely influ- 

 enced by what I have seen and been enabled to study in the collections 

 of the U. S. National Museum and Smithsonian Institution at Wash- 

 ington, D. 0. When my labors were first undertaken it was the inten- 

 tion to incorporate herein descriptions of methods and work, with the 

 appropriate plates illustrating it, of many other museums, both here 

 and in Europe. In some few instances this has been accomplished, while 

 from one reason or another it has failed in others. Often institutions 

 of the kind we speak are more or less sensitive on the point of submit- 

 ting their work for an impartial criticism, and so withheld it: while in 

 others such a very large proportion of the work Avas so far below the 

 standard of what taxidermy ought to be in these days, that for very 

 obvious reasons it has been placed aside without notice. Looking 

 broadly over the field and taking the subject as a whole, I am of the 

 opinion that there is, even in many of our first-class museums, very 

 wide room for improvement in such matters. My aim has been through 

 out this entile paper to accord full praise where it appeared to be justly 

 merited, and in those cases where the work was below what it ought 

 to be I have endeavored to keep myself above mere fault-finding by 

 simply indicating the only too apparent errors. We are to be congrat- 

 ulated that the art is making such very satisfactory progress among 

 Us, and that at the present writing, in our most advanced institutions, 

 Government and otherwise, there is to be found so much to be praised 

 and recommeuded and so little to be condemned. 



Much might be said here on the subject of suitable museums for the 

 exhibition of scientific collections of preserved animals, but this phase 

 of the question will be, as has been said, dealt with in another place. 

 Be it enough to say here in passing that our Government museums 

 are as yet very faulty in this particular and far behind some of the 

 better institutions in, for example, England and elsewhere. The old 

 ornithological hall in the Smithsonian building is already crowded to 

 overflowing, and is at the best but illy suited for the purpose, a large 

 H. Mis. 1U. pt. L> 28 



